The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1887-08-18

"Well, sir" exclaimed Captain
Flagg, pointing his topic, so to speak,
by touching the end of one stumpy fore
finger with the tip of the other, and
speaking with intense though quiet en-
joyment, "he put it like this: james
W. Dunn, my client he says, claims
pay at the rate of five pound a day fer
the use of his wheel, durin' eighteen
months voyage. It's his wheel, isn't
it? he had to pay for it, and there's the
name on the rim. The ships had the
use of it all this while, and ship can't
get along without a wheel no better'n
without a compass says the lawyer,
land you can settle it right now, or
~else We'll take it up to the admiralty
court.
Wasn't he smart! and did the own
ecrs have to pay it?" exclaimed and
questioned Polly in the same breath.
Captain Flagg nodded an affirmative.
And so the sailor got a big lot OF
money!" put in Tad, as an interroga-
tive.
He got what the lawyer left, most
likely" returned Captain Hagg, rather
dryly-which slight reflection against
the legal professions was, fortunately,
not understood by his hearers.
The sun disappeared behind the ocean
rim, and after supper the side-lights
were put out, and Tad instructed as to
the duties of a lookout; for now the
A. I - LnoInI ,-fphf 20
ward the open sea, which looked terri
bly, dark and cold to Tad's astonished
eyes, particularly as there was no such
thing as sign of land anywhere to be
seen, excepting the low sandy cape
shores astern, which were fast disap-
pearing in the distance and increasing
darkness.
Before sending the youthful mariner
for ard, Captain Flagg called him be-
low, and gravely commanded him to
put on some well-worn under-fannels,
several sizes too large, which, however,
Tad found very comfortable, pea
jacket, within whose capacious folds
three or four boys of Tad's dimensions
could have been buttoned. and a large
fur cap, which, only for resting on the
rims of his ears, would have complete
ly eXtinguished him.
"You don't look so stylish rs you
might" Captain Flagg acknowledged,
after Tad had effected the required
change, ''but sailors go in for comfort,
morn style;" with which assurance
conscious that he looked rather
funny, 10 say the least-was fain to be
eomforted. Indeed, the most that
troubled him was the fear that Miss
Polly might possibly laugh when he
ventured on deck. But, though Polly
had been brought up in the country,
she had too much natural politeness to
laugh; yet it must be confessed that the
depths of the deep sun-bonnet hid a
dimple or two, as Tad waddled for
ward, wondering what the matter
could be with the water to make the
vessel tumble about so.
CHAPTER V.
Darker and darker grew the night,
the wind sounded more and more
.dreary, the vessel tossed about in what
seemed to Tad a terribly dangerous
manner, while he began to feel an I'M
pleasant nausea, which recalled his
first and last experience in trying to
smoke a five-cent cigar.
81 wonder if l amt going to be sea-
sick" thought Tad, with a terrible
sinking sensation in the neighborhood
of his stomach. 1t was fortunate that
none of the PARKWAY dots of red and
green, which represented the lights of
distant ships, came very near the track
of the MARY j. for the unfortunate
lookout very soon became insensible to
every thing but his own sufferings.
When Eph came forward to strike
the bell, poor Tad was whooping over
the rail, in all the agonies of sea-sick-
ness, which was not made particle
less painful by Eph's assertion that it
wasn't nothin' killin'-he'd soon get
over it. Neanwhile-
"The storm grew loud space,
The water wrath was shrieking."
And as Captain Flagg glanced at the
compass and the sky, he expressed
wish that he'd "come to anchor in the
lower bay, and hung on till mornin'."
But wishing availed nothing, now
that the Mary j. was well out to
sea, with the March wind blowing half
n gale offshore. And as the next best
thing to being anchored was laying the
schooner 70, the Captain shouted as q
preliminary warning:
"All hans short sailr'
"All hands" came tumbling aft-that
rs. Eph and G. Washington Jones did.
Tad himself was already there, having
n